Why can’t people make really good stuff? Of course, sometimes, they simply don’t know how to do their job at a high level. Some try it this way, others try it that way, but normally the result is nothing to shout about. Things happen.
Sometimes the only way to get a good result is to pay a high price. And if you try to save a little, the result isn’t going to be that good. With wrong materials and inappropriate technologies you deal with what you have at hand. It’s a compromise…
Successfull Demand Response program deployment doesn’t make anybody to deploy wires at home. It doesn’t rely on sophisticated and costly hardware. It is flexible – you can manage it online if it bothers you too much. It is easy to setup and easy to modify.
Demand Response systems vendors have to think about approaches that enable all these features, they need a platform. The platform is ready, it will be shown on Metering Europe 2010 in Vienna, Austria, 22-24 september on Luxoft Booth.
August 17, 2010, the Kiev office of Luxoft hosted a seminar on the solutions of the company Informatica (pic 1). The seminar covered different methods of development, and new tools to facilitate implementation of various procedures. It also provided an overview of the features of the new version of the solution Informatica 9. Besides a practical demonstration, the participants have also analyzed topical business cases.
Currently, in addition to advanced solutions for processing and data integration, Informatica offers a solution for sending messages Ultra Messaging), which is used when working with stock market data on the world’s leading exchanges. The seminar also covered the subjects of such solutions as Cloud Computing, Data Services, Data Explorer, and Data Quality.
Something is going to change dramatically, with open market of Demand Response providers opening. Now they can not only propose services of load shedding, but they have to compete each other, proposing best service quality, better timing and accuracy. It is obvious, that the IT support of proxy demand resources is crucial to success. And we will see (and participate, of course) the process of creating and deploying outstanding solutions in nearest future.
There are some people, negating the experience of the others, people who like to understand everything for themselves. Usually this does not include companies. Companies which ignore the history of industry file for bankruptcy so fast that they don’t have the chance to learn enough to become successful. That’s why we monitor what giants do, study their experience, work to reproduce their success and avoid their failures.
These days we keep our eyes on Google and Apple. The conflict between these companies is seen by almost everybody who has ever typed “google.com” or kept an iPhone in their hands. They were analyzed as competitors, as former friends who became enemies, as companies having very different stories and very similar impacts to the market… But they’re also symbols. Symbols of two conflicting lifestyles: perfectionism versus uncontrollable innovations.
EPRI (ElectricPowerResearchInstitute) recently published a press release, stating that modern Portable Electronic Devices (PEDs) like iPad® (toghther with others based on Android®, the Palm Pre®, the Zune HD® and other platforms) is predicted to be a portable minicomputers, well-suited for SmartGrid perormance monitoring, assets tracking, magnetic and electric field measurements. According to their research there is a huge field to leverage PED’s mobility and comuting power as an engineering instrument.
I personally see another way of wide iPad adoption in Smart Grid programs. As it is a “cool device”, specially crafted to bring unbelievable “touch” experience in everyday tasks, it is created for consumers, not for engineers, serving them. Yes, there are IT geeks, that have fun running Telnet on iPads, but most of the photos are of children and cats, playing with a new toy. Sooner or later, many households will have something of the kind. That means, that the interactive, easy to use and fun to play with energy management solution is already deploying through the market.
In DRFusion Demand Response automation framework we are using IPad exactly like that – as a sophysticated In-Home display, capable of showing the homeowners their consumption levels, manage their home appliacnes and fine-tunning demand response. Only like that – handled by the consumer, this devices shows all the power it can reveal, helping utilities on the way to the Smart Grid.
And Engineers will use laptops.
One of my friends a student of American university has received a letter, describing new policies of energy usage. The letter stated the new rules of lighting, some limitations and recommendations for students on using electricity. It was clear from the letter, that the university has signed an agreement with the utility about participating in one of the demand response programs, aimed to shave the peak. It was also clear, that the university is making all the possible to help the region to cope the load peak, slightly changing the lifestyle.
What is most interesting is the reaction of the students. Though it was clear for them that the utility and the university are trying to cut their costs, they were absolutely sure, that there were no economical benefits for them, and their own bill will not be reduced. An interesting is that none has shown the intention to participate, somehow changing their consumption patterns.
I see two conclusions here.
First, automatic demand response is the key to successful implementation of peak shaving. If there is a recommendation to turn off some of the unused or unnecessary devices , we make the consumer think about it, and make some actions, that he is not awarded for. If however, all the devices are managed remotely, the consumer have to make some actions to tune his consumption pattern, turning on devices he needs. This, for the same reason, will lead to turning on only the minimum amount of loads, the real one he needs to.
And second, it is clear for me, being connected to the energy market, that the demand response is a must, it helps us to save tremendous amounts of money, not plugging in ineffective, costly energy sources. But many of the consumers, even young one, technology-oriented, are unaware of the reasons, processes and benefits if such programs and we still need to pay a lot of attention in educating them if we want the SmartGrid to become the part of our life.
